Carbon verses Aluminum in Gas cars?

[Jeff Harper]

It has been dabated that gas motors see more temp on a carbon plate verses an aluminum plate and I wanted to ask if Custom Works did any research on this and if so, would you mind sharing it?

I personally dont think it is an issue and have always used carbon plates but there are others that arent so sure. Would you mind sharing your thoughts? Thanks

Jeff Harper

[MWMOTORSPORTS21]

My opinion...and that's all it is is that there isn't enough contact between the motor and the mounts to make a difference for an aluminum chassis to absorb any heat away from the motor. I beleive there would be no difference whatsoever with an aluminum chassis, plus not to mention added weight.

Just my .02cents.

[Rob Cutman]

Jeff,
An aluminum chassis will in fact draw heat from the motor and will aid in keeping a motor cool. The drawbacks to the aluminum however are that it can bend and may tweak and stay tweaked if hit hard enough. We simply determined that since most oval races are only 4-5 minutes the heat build up in a motor for a short period of time is not worth the added weight penalty and decreased durablilty between the carbon fiber and aluminum chassis. An off-road or on-road race that runs for as long as 1 hour in some cases would be a whole different story.

Rob

[reghammer]

In the motorcycle industry American Honda & Yamaha started testing, then ultimately using
4mm carbon fiber engine mounts--and determined that there was little to no difference in
engine temp/heat transfer between aluminum mounts connected to an aluminum chassis,
or CF mounts to an aluminum chassis given that the cooling system is operating properly
(such as sufficent airflow or large enough radiator) i'm relativlely new to nitro and i'm not sure what percentage of motor temp is in what part of the motor at operating temp--but I
bet that it is not concentrated in the crankcase. I also know that i've been using 3mm CF
motor plates in my electric cars for 4 years, and I can measure as little as +3 f (indoors)
and +12 f (outdoors) considering you are geared correctly

[Jeff Harper]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I appreciate it.